Microsoft's 'Recall' feature can't be uninstalled after all

Unfortunate. Luckily, Windows itself can be removed.

It's incredible how much Microsoft is resting on their laurels in terms of seeing Windows as insurmountable and so consumers must take whatever Microsoft decide to dish out. I would have been totally resigned to this fact a decade ago, but middle-school+ kids these days don't use Windows - they use Chromebooks. A huge minority of them use iPhones. Familiarity with Windows systems isn't a given anymore in the university courses my friends teach.

When these kids grow up and get to make procurement decisions, are they going to be as tolerant as today's staff of whatever overreach Microsoft is going to try with Windows in the future, or are they - and their peers - going to be much more accepting of non-Windows solutions? I think they'll be much more accepting, especially given how much is done in a browser today anyway.

MS will obviously survive, and Windows will of course remain dominant for the foreseeable future but I can't help but feel that if/when the tipping point for the end of Windows' dominance comes, it will all be seen retrospectively as so preventable, because it is.

Microsoft shenanigans is the reason I switched recently to a Chromebook (Acer 516 GE 16GB - bought for £400 on EBay) and with minor exceptions it's been really easy.

I am a .NET dev who needs to remote into work via Citrix. I work locally on my own .NET stuff in JetBrains Rider and I can do it on the Chromebook now.

It's not perfect but, damn, it's really close: After installing the Linux Dev Environment I have all the tools I need.

The only issue is that sometimes when I open Rider, the font sizing is off - sometimes it's small, other times it's large. But Ctrl + MouseWheel takes care of it. Once or twice I had to restart the linux VM (right click, Close Linux and it's done) but that's it.

Anyway, the point is that nowadays there is becoming less and less reason to stay on Windows and I think Microsoft knows this too, hence trying to lock you into their ecosystem as much as possible and trying to dangle things in front of you to keep your attention.

But who would have thought that for £400 I can run all my .NET stuff on a Chromebook. Not only that, I switched from a 14700K on Windows to a 1260p running ChromeOS and coding/compiling is just as fast. It's nuts.

Side-note: Windows peaked at 2000...

I had to replace an aeging Windows laptop recently, and MS (and to a lesser extent Apple) going all-in on this kind of AI boondoggle finally gave me the shove I needed to go Linux-only (not dual booting as I'd done in the past, or WSL as I've been doing more recently). Framework made the landing soft, and I'm really excited to never look back. I wish this were a more accessible path for non-tech people.

Is that not consistent with how Microsoft always introduced its "features"? Especially all the crap that came since Windows 10/11.

First you could still create a local account after there was backlash against cloud-everything, nowadays a local only Windows is quite complex to set up.

The Cortana/search bar stuff was also regularly re-enabled or parts of it made non-configurable, with them only occasionally backtracking. Not to speak of the ads that are included nowadays.

Their strategy generally seems to be boiling the frog when it comes to pushing these features onto the users, whether they want it or not.

Just like Microsoft told congress that Internet Explorer couldn’t be uninstalled from Windows 98, even though it didn’t come preinstalled with Windows 95.

These are the system requirements for recall according to https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/retrace-your-ste...

System requirements for Recall Your PC needs the following minimum system requirements for Recall:

  A Copilot+ PC

  16 GB RAM

  8 logical processors

  256 GB storage capacity

  To enable Recall, you’ll need at least 50 GB of storage space free

  Saving screenshots automatically pauses once the device has less than 25 GB of storage space

So as long as you never buy a processor with a Copilot+ sticker on the box, I guess you don't have to worry about this?

National Defense runs almost entirely on Windows workstations, including "high-side" or classified networks.

I can't imagine the powers that be are too thrilled with this feature, and much like the Intel TPM High Assurance bit, I bet there's an undocumented way to remove it.

Literally no one wants this “feature”.

Microsoft has lost their collective minds.

Currently using Ubuntu as my main driver, replaced Windows.

I wouldn't really say the user experience is as good as Windows. Apps hang more often, steam freezes and restarts more. Games crash more often. All problems I wouldn't have on windows.

Even though Linux has gotten really far, I wouldn't be using it if windows wasn't so shit now.

I get that control of AI is playing for all the marbles, so I understand the desperate need to gather all the training data. Recall and its reason for being is an insult to my intelligence, and I will not be choosing Microsoft in the future. Windows now has negative value for me.

The Enterprise/IoT LTSC versions of Windows 10 with extended support up to 2032 are available with commercial Visual Studio licenses iirc.

If you can't somehow get hold of an ISO from your office's IT admin you can always sail the high seas :)

You can evaluate it here: https://info.microsoft.com/ww-landing-windows-10-enterprise....

I'm confident if we all start calling it "find last week's porn" instead of "recall", it will make things better.

This might be a contrarian view to the rest of this thread but I think this is a decisive move by Microsoft. AI-enabled OSes are a part of the future (for mainstream consumers at the very least). By sticking with Recall despite the initial backlash, I think Microsoft is showing they're a serious player.

MSFT would not risk their enterprise and government business with features like Recall if they weren't sure that it had a need and requirement at some level. Fundamentally, MSFT isn't a company that preempts the needs of their users and haven't been for the past 25 years. They've lagged behind mobile and then cloud because none of their main customers thought they were important. They face they're going on the front foot is indicative that they have a larger strategic play going on here.

Coming to the product itself there appear to be sufficient controls in place on Recall. It's opt-in even if it cannot be uninstalled. It's all on-device and allocates specific space on the PC. I can specify if I don't want it to take snapshots of certain apps and it doesn't take snapshots of private browsing by default. IT teams can manage Recall through policies AND users can have further fine grained control over their settings beyond that. It's great that MSFT have included these right from the start because if we're frank, not all other tech companies would have thought it through.

Personally, I wouldn't use Recall but I can see the appeal and usefulness -- for both consumers and IT teams. You ask your computer what you did on so-and-so date and it'll tell you? That's great and what computers should do -- take cognitive load off of our minds. Plus it's a great audit trail in the office.

My only gripe with it -- as with anything MSFT really -- is security. I'm not entirely sure MSFT would be able to stop people writing malware that explicitly steal Recall data. I hope they have safeguards but being closed source that's the best we can expect unfortunately.

I know HN users are more likely to be anti-MSFT and more tech savvy than the average consumer -- it's a bit like the tech enthusiasts buying smart products and the senior engineer living alone in a forest off-grid. But what we have to remember that we're the exception than the rule. Most people are tech-illiterate and have no inclination towards learning more or towards spending more time with their computers. Products like this are for them.

Why would Microsoft push something that no user wants, is a privacy nightmare, a PR disaster, entails additional costs for them in storage, network and compute?

It's to train a multimodal AI model on what each employee role is doing and to replace employees. Because a lot of our jobs are looking at one set of windows and typing/clicking on another set.

They are probably thinking of training agents to do the back office work of their customers, no? Seems kinda obvious, regardless of the "this is local data only" talk.

Somebody's bonus is dependent on Recall being there

and windows 10 is end of life in a little over a year.

I want to believe this is the end of the line for windows, but it feels more like the end of humanity. :(

Wtf were they thinking. So now my computer has a nice up to 50gb repository is screenshots, sure "local ocr" but in the event someone can access that cache of screenshots they could for example watch me navigate my banking site/banking details etc. If someone uses the "show password" option then their password is exposed.

These tech exec idiots too rich now, the billions and desire for trillions has seeped into their shriveled brains.

Parents and partners are provided with surveillance tools.

Got it.

I suspect this will lead to an increase in the number of people staying on Win10 and below. Naturally, MS will also continue spreading their usual FUD in their attempts at persuading the userbase to "bend over and take it".

This will also lead to an increased demand for custom "distros" and modding tools and such, which has always been a bit of an "underground" community but has occasional resurgences. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40130230

As the old saying goes: "challenge accepted." ;-)

But why so? Doesn't this mean that Microsoft want (and will) to spy on the contents of your screen anyway even if Recall "disabled"?

In 2084, Mars is a colonized world under the tyrannical regime of Microsoft, who control the mining of valuable personal data.

On Earth, construction worker Douglas Quaid experiences recurring dreams about Mars and a mysterious woman.

Intrigued, he visits Rekall, a company that implants realistic false memories, and chooses one set on Mars (with a blue sky) where he is a Martian secret agent.

I don't understand why it's even legal; it's akin to call recording, which is illegal in many areas. Basically I think it's a great idea for people to AI-process their own information, but when it comes to conversations, it's highly problematic.

My money is that Microsoft knows we're all heading to a remote work environment within the decade. This "feature" will be something employers will be clamoring for, so having it baked in ensures that enterprises continue to deploy Windows as the OS of choice.

Of course not. Even though everyone tells me that all Microsoft software on top of the core operating system is actually installed using the same app installation framework that all third parties use, which definitely permits uninstalling.

It is possible to uninstall any Windows component if you know which files contain it. And it's not like Windows would refuse to boot if Recall exe/dlls suddenly go missing.

(this website is behind Cloudflare and blocks me unless I use a VPN)

Will Microsoft sell your 'Recall' information to 3rd-parties?

since currently it is only compatible for select new devices, is it possible to do the inverse of the TPM "fix" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39384039) in this case?

in other words, can we fool the os to thinking that the device is not compatible? in terms of NPU compute maybe.

ps: the "free space" workaround is a hilarious approach if at all effective.

Its an excellent feature to have for specialized malware to exploit. Government groups may already have developed their own of intelligence gathering.

Hey kids, in regards to this, is your Gen-X dad trying to make some sort of joke about some "Total Recall" thing?

Windows might be going the way of the Facebook - Billions of users but somehow only 3 people (out of many) I know use it.

Why is recall needed? What does it even offer - what is the use case for its existence?

Maybe they will main two Windows installation images, with and without?

Doesn't this break EU law, by collecting personal information without consent, and without offering the option to have it removed?

I would be surprised if this stands up in courts in the EU.

If only there was an alternative to Windows, then I’d happily switch. Currently, Linux Mint seem like the closest alternative, but I wish there was a more modern ui

DeepinOS had to best experience so far but there is something with it that makes me not want to fully transition to it, Idk what it is

after 30 years how much data would it contain?

they are out of control going over a cliff since Windows 95...

How the fuck can this be legal?

I really wish the US would stop coddling these disgusting megacorps and would actually bring out some guillotines instead. M$ still existing is a complete farce and mockery.

Can it be disabled?

Is this the enshittification everyone keeps talking about?

China, Russia and many other countries will enthusiastically use Windows to send their secrets to cloud servers in the USA /s